Magpas Air Ambulance

Magpas Air Ambulance is a charity which brings essential lifesaving care by land and air to patients in life-threatening emergencies in the East of England and beyond. Some of the UK’s expert doctors and paramedics volunteer their own time to work with us. Magpas Air Ambulance is not a state-funded service and relies on generous public donations to continue saving lives. Since 1971 we’ve treated over 60,000 patients.

Our medics support the ambulance service by bringing additional skills and treatments to the scene of an incident.

We operate a helicopter and rapid response vehicles from our base near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and are dispatched to medical incidents in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, London, and occasionally further afield.

The Magpas Air Ambulance medical team receives enhanced training which allows them to offer procedures and treatments at the scene, like general anaesthetic, which are usually only available in hospital. This means that the frontline care the team delivers doesn’t just save lives, it helps seriously ill and injured people return to a good quality of life.

The oldest emergency medical charity in the UK, Magpas Air Ambulance started life as a voluntary service in 1971 when two GPs, Dr Neville Silverston MBE and Dr Derek Cracknell MBE, took action to help victims of road accidents.

As it was founded by two doctors, the charity has a strong clinical heritage. Today, it offers pioneering training to doctors and paramedics wishing to specialise in pre-hospital emergency medicine, for which it is renowned in the medical world.